"History isn’t a myth-making discipline, it’s a myth-busting discipline ..."

Sir Richard Evans FBA

Friday, April 3, 2015

Whonnock outside Whonnock

The other day I was asked to find out where a man called Henry Foster had farmed in Whonnock. 
His name appeared on the 1921 Canada Census as living in Haney. He is then 65 years of age. 
His wife, Margaret, died in 1932 in Haney. Why would Henry and his two unmarried daughters, after Margaret’s death have moved to Whonnock? He was by now an aged man. Did he move at all? 
His name did not appear in the directories as a Whonnock resident in the years following Margaret's death. But then, as from 1939, his name started showing up as a Whonnock resident in the directories.
The answer was that in 1938 rural postal delivery started from the Whonnock post office. The first rural route stretched all the way to where the Fosters lived at the north end of 234 Street in Albion. They had never moved to Whonnock. 
Before home delivery the Fosters would have picked up their mail somewhere else, but after 1938  their address became part of the mail was from Whonnock and their postal address was Whonnock. That was the reason their name was included as a resident of Whonnock in the directories. 

No comments: